Her gran had sworn by it. “Caustic muck rots the pipes, love,” she used to say. “Bicarb’s kind. And stubborn.”
Then the science began.
The water sat in the sink like a dark, oily mirror. It hadn’t moved for three hours. Jenny poked at it with a spoon, and a foul belch of old food and grease bubbled up. bicarbonate of soda unblock sink
It vanished like it had somewhere better to be.
She stood up, rinsed the orange box, and placed it back under the sink—front and centre. Her gran had sworn by it
She’d read about it once. The alkaline bicarb and the acid vinegar reacting to make carbon dioxide—a gas that pushes and scours, loosening the gunk that hard chemicals only burn into cement.
She scooped out a generous cup of the bicarb—clouds of fine dust puffing up—and tipped it straight into the murky drain hole. It sat there like dry snow on a black pond. Then she poured the vinegar. Not all at once, but in a steady, glugging stream. And stubborn
“Gran,” she said to the empty kitchen, “you were right.”